Stone didn’t take his gaze off the dark sky. “It has to be two different flights—Look out!”
Moon spun around and spotted the shapes streaking past overhead. Rulers, at least five of them, aiming for the city’s doorway.
Moon jumped straight up into the air, almost into the chest of the first ruler. It grabbed at him and Moon ripped upward with his disemboweling claws. Jade shot past him and tore into the rulers above. Then a wash of displaced air told Moon that Stone was aloft. The rulers scattered.
Moon twisted in the air, ripping his claws free of the ruler’s stomach and shoving it away from him. It flapped unsteadily and turned back toward the island, but he didn’t have time to finish it off. He caught the wind and looked for the remaining rulers. They were about a hundred paces off the stern of the sunsailer, near the stone platform with the pillars, trying to regroup.
Jade swept down toward them and Moon tilted his wings to get above her, then they both dove in tandem.
Jade hit one and drove it straight into the ruler flying below it. Moon swerved at the last instant to land on top of another and rip its wing webbing. Stone slammed through again, knocking the three remaining rulers out of the sky. Then Moon felt the air change and knew something was about to slam into him from behind. He flared his spines.
A weight struck him, jolted him hard enough for his wings to lose the wind. He snapped them in and rolled, and heard a distinctive dakti shriek right in his ear. He felt the tug on his spines and realized the stupid miserable thing had impaled itself so deeply it couldn’t pull free.
Moon snarled and spun again, and its claws scrabbled at his back, trying to get past his spines and scales. He was going to have to take it down to the stone platform and scrape it off.
As he dove for the platform, the dakti apparently gave up on survival and yanked itself further down on his spines, reaching for his head. Moon slapped claws away from his eyes and cupped his wings, hoping the platform was where he thought it was. Then suddenly the weight was jerked away and the dakti’s angry shriek abruptly cut off.
Moon tumbled, snapped his wings in at the last instant, slammed into the stone dock, and rolled. He landed in an awkward crouch and looked up.
The half-Fell queen stood on the edge of the dock, holding the bleeding dakti by the neck. She tossed it into the water.
Moon sprang backward and almost rammed into a pillar. Then Jade landed between them.
For a long heartbeat, they were all frozen, crouching, ready to attack or flee. Then the Fell queen said, “You saw what I did.” She was speaking to Jade.
Jade said, “I saw. That’s why you still have your head.”
The Fell queen flicked her tail, an oddly Raksuran gesture. Teeth gritted, trying not to breathe too loudly and upset the fragile balance of the situation, Moon wondered if she had much control over her spines, if she used them to express emotion and communicate. Or if she didn’t know how.
The Fell queen eased to a standing position and Jade copied her, the two moving in time with each other. The Fell queen said, “I want to talk.” She spoke Raksuran, but her pronunciation was oddly accented.
Jade said, “How did you control the sealings?”
Yes, Moon thought, keep her distracted. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the stern of the sunsailer moving toward the doorway.
The Fell queen answered, “That was the other flight. The sealings aren’t under control, the progenitor asked them to attack you. She found their spawning ground. Now they have to do what she says.”
So they were right, it wasn’t one flight nesting in two different places, but two flights. That ... doesn’t necessarily help, Moon thought.
The Fell queen stepped to the side, tilting her head as if trying to see Moon better. “I don’t want to fight.”
Jade’s spines flicked. “You know, that’s what all Fell say. So unless you have something more interesting to add—”
“We chased away the other flight. You’ve seen it.”
Jade said, “So you don’t want to share your prey. How does that not surprise me?”
“I don’t want prey. I want your help.”
“We’ve heard all this before. You’re hardly the first to try this.”
Moon, his senses hyper-alert, felt something change in the water lapping over his claws. It might just be a wake from the sunsailer’s passage, but the angle and the force of it was wrong. Jade hadn’t given any indication she had noticed.
The Fell queen tilted her head, another Raksuran mannerism. “The other flight wanted something in the city. Let us come in with you.”
Jade laughed. “We’re going into the city to get away from you. Surely you noticed that.”
“But you don’t know what’s inside. We know what the other flight told us.”
“Then tell me. Prove I should listen to you.”
The Fell queen hesitated, and the moment stretched. For a heartbeat, Moon actually thought she was going to tell them something important, something real. Then she bared her fangs in a gesture more Raksuran than Fell, and said, “You don’t want to listen. I told you—”
Water fountained up beside the platform as Stone lunged across it at the half-Fell queen. Jade leapt to the top of the pillar, and Moon scrambled up beside her, just in time to see the Fell queen fling herself into the air. She tumbled across the water, flapping frantically, then managed to get enough height to catch the wind.
Stone stood up, spreading his wings, but the Fell queen turned away, arrowing off toward the island. Jade growled, quivering with the urge to give chase. Moon glanced back toward the door to see the stern of the sunsailer was all the way inside. “Jade, we need to go.”
She hissed in reluctant agreement, and shouted, “Stone, the door!”
Stone launched into the air. Jade leapt upward and Moon followed, letting the wind catch him and push him toward the sunsailer.
He saw Bramble and Delin waiting on the deck with half a dozen armed Kishan. River, Root, and Briar were up on the cabin roof. He couldn’t see Balm and Song, but Chime must still be down on the door ledge. And where was Merit?
Jade dropped onto the stern deck first and furled her wings in to give Moon room to land. Moon skidded across the deck and stopped himself on the rail. He saw with relief that Chime and Merit were both down on the ledge, with Balm and Song beside them. Above him, Stone snapped his wings in and shifted to his groundling form, and landed beside him in a crouch.
Kalam ran toward them. “You made it! We were afraid—”
“So were we,” Moon admitted. Bramble flung herself at him so hard he staggered back a step.
Stone straightened up and let his breath out in a hiss. Bramble let go of Moon and flung herself at Stone.
The sunsailer’s stern cleared the door and Jade shouted, “Chime, let it close!”
Merit tugged on Chime’s arm and pulled him away from the wall. Chime staggered and almost went into the water. Balm caught him, lifted him off his feet, and leapt to the railing. Moon reached up and she dropped Chime into his arms, then stepped off the rail.
Annoyed, Chime said, “You can put me down, I’m fine.”
Moon’s heart thumped in relief as he set Chime on his feet. Chime seemed ruffled and tired, but not hurt. Song arrived with Merit and jumped down from the railing. Nerve-rackingly slow, the great door started to swing backward, moving to shut off the opening. The Kishan distance-lights focused on it. This side was a smooth stone of mottled browns and grays, gleaming damply in the light.